On Friday, U.S. Sen. Bob Casey (D-PA) asked the Federal Trade Commission to stop the closure of Charleroi, Pa.-based Pyrex and to investigate the private equity firm Centre Lane Partners’ for illegal activity in acquiring the plant without regulatory approval.
Casey released a new report, Charleroi, PA: An Example of How Private Equity is Shattering the Glass Industry and Leaving Workers Behind , that he said outlines how Center Lane Partners used financial engineering and shady business deals that culminating in the partnership’s decision to close the plant, abandoning its 132 year operation in Pennsylvania and leaving more than 300 workers without jobs.
“Private equity crushing Charleroi’s generational legacy of glass manufacturing is yet another example of Wall Street screwing over Pennsylvania workers. The plant’s closure is a slap in the face to workers, their community, and the people of Pennsylvania,” Casey said. “I am working every day to protect union jobs and hold Wall Street executives accountable for the havoc they’ve wreaked in our Commonwealth.”
In a letter to FTC Chair Lina Khan, Casey, a member of the Senate Finance Committee, called on the commission and the U.S. Department of Justice to block the plant’s closure pending a full investigation into the firm for its efforts to evade regulatory rules and “strip the plant bare…